Treatment options that increase immune function, such as Osteopathic Manipulation Treatment (OMT) lymphatic techniques, may provide improved short or long term performance of the immune system. However, the efficacy of OMT to boost immune function among people living with HIV has not yet been examined in a controlled study. Our experiment is designed to examine the short (45 minutes) term impact of OMT on the white blood cells counts of HIV positive men who are either antiretroviral therapy (ART) naïve or have not taken ART for at least 12 months prior to enrollment in the study.

rib raising for a total of 4 minutes- 2 minutes on each side of the thoracic spine ]

thoracic pump at a rate of 60 times per minute for a total of 5 minutes bilaterally

abdominal pump at a rate of 30 times per minute for a total of 5 minutes bilaterally.

No Intervention: 2

Eligibility

Ages Eligible for Study:

18 Years to 65 Years (Adult)

Sexes Eligible for Study:

Male

Accepts Healthy Volunteers:

No

Criteria

Inclusion Criteria:

are either Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) naïve or not have taken ART for the past 12 months

are between the ages of 18 to 65

have a CD4+ T cell count between 200-700cells/mm3

have viral loads less than 100,000 copies/mL

do not have any medical condition that limits his ability to participate in this study as defined by his physician (e.g., cancer, blood clotting disorder etc.)

are willing to provide informed consent

are not using any drugs recreationally

are not on prescribed systemic steroids

are willing to recruit a friend/partner, aware of the their HIV serostatus, to be trained in OMT techniques and apply it to him daily.

Exclusion Criteria:

history of malignancy excluding both squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma of the skin and/or any malignancies fully treated and considered cured by the treating physician for at least 1 year

Participants with a medical access port and/or a noncompliant ribcage will be excluded from the study.

The potential causes for ribcage noncompliance include:

congestive obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD)

spinal arthritis

costochondritis

congestive heart failure (CHF)

pulmonary edema

recent trauma to the ribcage

certain connective tissue disease such as Ankylosing Spondylitis

There is a risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) rupture in participants with AAA and these participants are excluded from the study.

Contacts and Locations

Choosing to participate in a study is an important personal decision. Talk with your doctor and family members or friends about deciding to join a study.
To learn more about this study, you or your doctor may contact the study research staff using the Contacts provided below.
For general information, see Learn About Clinical Studies.

Please refer to this study by its ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT00703248